Ian Wright has called for Manchester City to be given an ‘unprecedented punishment’ following the verdict of the independent commission that found them guilty for breaching the Premier League‘s financial rules over a nine season period.
The Premier League released a statement on Tuesday evening which revealed that Man City had been “guilty of all charges related to serious breaches of the league’s financial rules over a 9-season period.”
The verdict also revealed that City were guilty of setting up “‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors during the period, which were part of a disguised funding scheme, whereby those companies were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.”
The result of these schemes meant that City were able to inflate revenue and reduce costs by more than £900m in what Wright described as ‘cheating on an industrial scale’.
Speaking as a pundit on ITV ahead of England’s Nations League clash with Czech Republic , Wright touched on the Man City verdict and said: “It’s cheating on an industrial scale.
“It’s quite surreal seeing it written down like that. You can’t mention [Man] City without mentioning what’s going on because they were so great. I feel like an unprecedented punishment is required here.
“It’s a massive day for the Premier League, they’ve taken on a whole country.”
Roy Keane called the verdict ‘bittersweet’ due to the reputational damage that will come for the Premier League (Reuters)
Fellow pundit, Roy Keane, also addressed the recent update and called the verdict ‘bittersweet’ due to how it will hurt the brand and reputation of the Premier League itself.
“It’s very damaging for the [Premier] League,” Kean explained. “The brand of the Premier League is huge all over the world and it’s been fantastic but for them [Man City] to be caught cheating then they, obviously, deserve that punishment.
“It’s bittersweet. It’s a good day because if you’re caught cheating in this game then you deserve to be punished but it’s not good for the league.
“Now, what punishment comes their way? [What’s] the mindset of the players going forward? They [Man City] play Liverpool in a couple of weeks, what about the players that have been part of the problem over the last few years with the cheating?
Manchester City were found to have inflated their revenues and reduce costs by £900m (PA Archive)
Wright concluded by adding that the case looks set to continue and could end up ‘very messy’. He said: “It’s going to get so litigious now, I think it’s going to go on for so long. It’s so sad.”
Manchester City released a statement of their own maintaining their stance of innocence and have until Friday 2 October to appeal against the verdict of the independent comission.
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